


Nekomimi Online

by wirewool



Category: Sword Art Online
Genre: AU, More tags to be added as story progresses, Nekomimi Online
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-20
Updated: 2013-03-26
Packaged: 2017-11-29 23:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/692754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wirewool/pseuds/wirewool
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Kirito put up The Seed for free use many new VRMMOs were created, one of them being Nekomimi Online, a game that requires an invitation to get in.</p><p>Set after the end of the anime and will at most only hold some vague references to canon events. This is a highly self-indulgent AU I made because cat ears.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. LINK START

**Author's Note:**

> 30/8/2014 ─ Read through entire work and corrected mistakes and made minor changes to the formatting. Preparing to continue the series after a very long hiatus. I apologise to the people who have read and liked the work; I didn't know that anyone was actually reading it before I forgot about AO3 for a while. Thank you for your support!

 

 

「NEKOMIMI ONLINE IS ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS YOUR AMUSPHERE DATA.」  
► ALLOW ACCESS  
► DENY ACCESS

Nekomimi Online.  
That was the name of the game I wanted to play. However, I was not going to be allowed in before I allowed their servers access to all my save data from all other VRMMOs I had played so far, as well as my real name and e-mail address. Normally, this would be a preposterous amount of information to ask for ─ after all, virtual reality games were supposed to be games were you created fictional personas and forgot about the real world. But Nekomimi Online was run on a private server by a tight-knit group of real life friends, and due to the nature of the game they wanted a safety net. Some of the outfits in-game were plainly outrageously revealing since romantic relations were encouraged, and although the male-female avatar ratio was at an almost even split, most of the players were girls in real life, something that was almost unheard of in the VRMMO world. Almost all of them also had at least a superficial relationship with at least one other member outside of the game so no one was a complete stranger to everyone. This was partly because you needed an invitation to join, partly because none of the members _wanted_ to let complete strangers in, in order to protect them from some of the scum that prowled the webs of the internet. Anyway, after the moderators reviewed the information it would simply be stored, none of it would ever be revealed to a third party, unless they were for some reason required to by the new VRMMO security laws that had followed after the SAO and ALO disasters.

I pressed 「ALLOW ACCESS」 and a message appeared shortly thereafter.

 

「A MODERATOR IS REVIEWING YOUR USER HISTORY.」

A white cat with no distinguishing features ─ barely any features at all, actually; it didn't even have eyes ─ appeared, walking aimlessly back and forth. The cat didn't fill any other function than to reassure the waiting applicant that the connection wasn't lagging.

The classmate that had invited me (upon my request) ─ a girl that I wasn't exactly friends with, but someone that was easy to talk to ─ had told me that it could take up around five minutes before you were either ushered onwards to the interview or was rejected and kicked out. The latter usually only happened if you had serious manner breach warnings, though, and I had none.

 

Still, this was taking way more than five minutes. I checked the clock. 6:37 PM. Had I really been waiting for thirteen minutes already? I must have seriously spaced out. Not that that was very weird; like the cat, the space I was in was just as featureless. A huge, black nothing, no roof, no walls, not even a properly defined floor to speak of, so apart from the white cat there was nothing to pay attention to.

It was probably because I was a boy that I had to wait so long, I reasoned. I may not have any warnings, but lewd behaviour didn't always trigger any, and often it depended on whether the other person involved actually reported you or not, but still, thirteen --- no, fourteen minutes was still a bit much, wasn't it?

Just as I was about to kneel down to see if it was possible to interact with the white cat at all in order to chase away that intense sense of boredom ─ stretching out the gray, anonymous hand of the temporary placeholder avatar ─ a musical jingle could be heard and another box of text appeared, bobbing up and down to the beat.

 

「THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE.」

The text was quickly replaced.

 

「CONGRATULATIONS!」  
「YOU HAVE PASSED THE INITIAL INSPECTION!」  
「PLEASE PROCEED FOR THE INTERVIEW.」

A roll of red carpet appeared in the blackness, fell to the imagined floor and started rolling itself out. Glowing orbs appeared, suspended in mid-air, but because the space I was in was so empty in all directions the light didn't actually reflect off anything else than the carpet and the grey skin of my avatar, so they were practically useless.

The cat had vanished.

Relieved that something was happening, but with a knot of nervosity in my gut, I stepped up on the carpet and started walking.

 


	2. REGISTRATION

I walked for a while on that carpet, swatting away some of the glowing orbs that drifted too close to my face, until suddenly I stood in something that looked like an aristocrat's office, without having noticed exactly when or how I got there. There wasn't an inch that wasn't somehow decorated, though most was, thankfully, subtle enough not to make it look cluttered. The furniture was in a dark hardwood that gave off a faint dry and spicy smell, and drapes and cushions spread around the room was in dark red and gold. A dozen cats lay scattered on top of these, watching me closely through narrow eyes.

Behind a massive desk in front of a stained glass window depicting an angel-like silhouette sat a cat-eared and -tailed girl with an expensive-looking, fitted suit. It was of a simple cut, but if it weren't for a strategically placed cravat it would have emphasized her chest to the point where looking anywhere else would have been difficult, regardless of what sexual orientation one might have. It was the kind of outfit you could only get away with in VRMMO's, or possibly in shadier parts of large cities. Despite this, she didn't look like the kind of girl you could simply have your way with (even disregarding that as a moderator she probably had a ridiculously high level), and had the same look in her eyes as the cats as she watched me behind her glasses. The kind that tells you that she's in a completely different category than you, to the point where she didn't even have a need to look down on you for being inferior. That's the sort of atmosphere that reigned in the office.

I wasn't too sure what she was looking for — my current avatar was so impersonal it didn't even have a proper face, so it couldn't reveal anything about me or my state of mind.

Her username was displayed in a moderator's navy blue; she was called "Shii". After a moment of silence, Shii pushed her black hair behind her ears and smiled.

"Sorry for making you wait so long." Her tone was friendly, and she sounded like she genuinely cared. It made the atmosphere much more relaxed. That's right, I thought, this is a game run by normal people, not a corporation. They form actual relationships. There's no way there'd be space for overly haughty people with a holier-than-thou attitude. I smiled back, forgetting that my avatar couldn't convey my feelings.

"No problem," I answered, "I can see why you would want to check people's backgrounds properly."

Her smile widened.

"How understanding." She sounded amused. "Well then," she straightened up. "Basically we have no objection to you joining, but we have a couple of standard questions I have to ask nonetheless."

I nodded. That was to be expected; this was an interview, after all. "Fire away."

She picked up a black leather folder from the table and opened it. After a quick glance at the contents she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and began.

"Although you have played some other VRMMOs, the game you were most invested in was ALfheim Online, correct? You played as a Cait Sith known as Frei, and although you, as a renegade, didn't participate much in the inter-racial wars you still gained a considerably high level fighting monsters. The other games you played, however fleetingly, were also centered around combat of one kind or another. While Nekomimi Online does have some combat, if one wishes, it's not primarily a combat game, and not a game that attracts many male players.  So, why is it that you want to join?" She tilted her head slightly to the side, curiously.

"As you mentioned, I was a Cait Sith in ALfheim Online," I began, having already prepared for the possibility that this question would show up. "I initially chose Cait Sith because you had the possibility to become a Beast Tamer, but as I played more and more, I got used to expressing my emotions with my ears and tail, and to use my tail for balance and so on. It got to the point where I felt weird in other games without them, so I just continued in ALO, forgetting about the other games. I was content to just continue there; I got a couple of friends that I was very close with too, so I had no need for other games."

At that point, if my avatar had had a tail, I would undoubtedly have unconsciously started sweeping it back and forth.

"But then of course ALO was suddenly shut down. Then when people started making games with The Seed, I found a couple of good ones where I play with my friends, but they don't have classes with animal ears at all, and somehow it doesn't feel as ---" He searched for an appropriate word, but in the end, sighed and settled for "Real." I shifted my weight from my right foot to my left awkwardly, but Shii just nodded, and I continued. "I eventually found some other games with animal attributes, but most were either poorly made or had a weird atmosphere in them," I smiled a wry smile, even though it couldn't be seen. "Exactly the kind of atmosphere that you're aiming to avoid, I guess. So I never stuck around for more than a week, tops. Then I heard a couple of girls at school talk about Nekomimi Online, and I asked one of them what it was about, and in the end she offered to invite me in."

Shii looked a bit surprised. Nervously I asked if I'd said anything wrong.

"No," she shook her head quickly, "You're just very honest."

"Well," I laughed, relieved, "Seeing as I don't really have another good reason to join I figured honest was the way to go. Anything else would just make me look really suspicious."

"It would," she agreed, looking down into the folder again. "Normally we'd ask some more questions, but you have answered most of what we usually ask for already, so..." She tapped some buttons I couldn't see in the folder, and then let it go. It floated calmly through the air until it hovered in front of me, revealing an awful lot of text with the heading "Terms and Conditions".

"...Do I have to read through all of this?" I asked slowly.

Shii snorted. "Not really; most of it is the same as any other VRMMO. I suggest you take a look at the Privacy Policy though before you agree, since we have a lot of information about you now."

I quickly skipped ahead to the relevant part and skimmed it through. There was nothing unexpected, and everything was quite reasonable. After carefully checking some points — specifically those about what happened with real life information like my name and e-mail address — I scrolled to the end and pressed "I Accept". The folder started glowing, spun around a few times and then vanished.

Shii gave an even more radiant smile, this time filled with real friendliness, and stood up. "Welcome to Nekomimi Online! You'll see, this is a lovely game, I'm sure you can find something worthwhile to do even though the fighting system isn't as impressive as ALO's! Please use the door behind you to go into the dressing room and create an avatar. When you're done you'll be transported to the town square, where an NPC will answer any basic questions you have. If you're still unclear about something the NPC cannot answer, you can always visit the Town Hall; there's almost always someone willing to help newcomers there." She held out her hand, and I shook it. "Have fun!"

"I will!" I assured her, and went through the door.

 

The dressing room had the same colour scheme to it as the office, and the same plush pillows in heaps in the corners. The door behind me closed, and a red satin curtain parted the space into the "changing area" and what would have been a waiting area for friends or family, if any such people could have followed along. It occurred to me then that maybe people _could_ go along; the people that invited you in for example. I could easily see how it could appeal to girls to play day out shopping while customising an avatar, giving advice on how to look and dress and which race to choose, if there were any races to choose in this game. I would soon find out.

The wide wall was dominated by a large golden frame, but instead of mirror glass, it had an interactive screen, showing a pre-modelled female template avatar in the size it would have in the game itself. The avatar on the screen bowed once, and then smiled.

「WELCOME! 」

It said in a cheery voice, and then gestured to a set of options to her right, flicking her ears.

「PLEASE CHOOSE AMONG THESE OPTIONS FIRST, YOU WILL THEN BE ABLE TO CUSTOMISE YOUR CHARACTER TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT! CLOTHES, ACCESSORIES AND HAIR CAN BE ALTERED LATER, BUT NOT YOUR BODYSHAPE AND FACE, SO PLEASE THINK IT THROUGH CAREFULLY BEFORE CONFIRMING YOUR CHOICES!」

She then went back to a passive state, only swaying slightly back and forth a bit, and occasionally swaying her tail from side to side. I looked at the first question that popped up, asking for my gender. For a moment my hand hovered indecisively, thinking back to some conversations I'd had in the past, before quickly shaking my head and pressing "male". The system then inquired whether I wanted to set the body measurements according to my own or if I wanted to completely customise the entire body manually. Although I did consider the idea of making my avatar a bit taller than my real body, in the end I decided against it. Moving the avatar was easier if it corresponded more closely to your real body in proportions, and after all I'd used my real size in ALO as well, so why not here too? I also went with the same skin tone as I had in real life ─ though on the avatar it looked more like a refined and healthy "pale" rather than a "doesn't get any colour because he never goes outside" ─ even though the odd light blue was tempting. (I might also have made the avatar a slight bit slimmer than my real body. Just a little.)

The screen then zoomed in on the head of the avatar, and a line of text appeared, prompting me to shape the face, offering me a number of sliders for various parameters. It was always best in VRMMOs not to make a face too close to your real appearance for safety reasons, but to be honest I didn't stray that far from my actual features. I kept the shape and nose the same, and then just changed the eyes and mouth a little. With a pair of green, cat-like eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth I looked different enough for no one to recognise me, except maybe the girl who invited me. Actually, she probably would, considering I was one of the few male players and wasn't too creative with my avatar. But it was too late to think about that, I had already confirmed the face, and besides, she had offered to show me around and introduce me to some people, so she would find out which user I was anyway.

Now that the basic form of the avatar was established, the screen changed. Now there was a list of words foreign to me on the left-hand side, and my avatar base on the right. It was probably different races, I reasoned, and clicked on the first option, "American Bobtail". It was a bit strange to have real-life nationalities in a VRMMO though--- oh. I figured it out as soon as the avatar changed; taking on cat ears and tail and a standard uniform for the "American Bobtail". It wasn't so much _races_ as it was _breeds_ — cat breeds. To make it easier to find appearances you favoured, they had kept the real names for the breeds instead of making up a bunch of new breeds. That way you could even appear as a human form of your own cats. I had to admit, it was a cute concept.

A number of features were specific to the American Bobtail apparently. To begin with, the tail was shorter than the average tail. A bob, as the name suggested. This made me reject the idea of choosing this particular breed; I wanted a long and slim tail like the one I'd had in ALO. Still, I read through the characteristics that defined the Bobtail in order to see what kind of things could differ among breeds. For appearance, they had more shaggy kind of hair-styles. Their "Friendliness" attribute made them earn slightly more returns after defeating monsters if they were in a party, and were good at escaping and finding hidden treasure, but they levelled up slower than other breeds.

It was all very interesting to see how they had incorporated breed behaviour into the system, but reading all of the info on all of the breeds would be bothersome, so I only read those of the appearances I favoured.

In the end I was deciding between the Ocicat and the Bengal. Both had a more "wild" look about them, but their attributes were completely different. The Ocicat levelled up quickly and learned skills quickly, but were slightly slower in combat than the Bengal. Overall the Bengal had better stats in both speed and strength, but lacked the "Friendliness" attribute.

In the end, it was the cooler appearance of the Bengal that tipped the scale, with its stripes and spots.  I chose a short, less showy hairstyle from the ones available that still had some markings in it, and then proceeded to the last step, which was to choose an outfit. There wasn't that many for the Bengal itself, but considering that there probably was six unique outfits per breed it still amounted to a _huge_ effort in design and programming, really remarkable. Another thing that made them stand out was that unlike ALfheim Online, or most other VRMMOs really, Nekomimi Online didn't have a set style for their clothes. Most of the time other games were fighting games, and they had one theme in common: Armour. While other clothes _were_ available, most of the effort went into designing armour which, even if the design itself was unique to the game, only had so many variations it could produce. In Nekomimi Online there was a whole range of different fashion, there seemed, and probably armour for fighting as well, once you got that far. The starting outfits, however, didn't have any armour at all, so you'd probably have to get that later somehow. I wondered how much effort had to have gone into making this world so detailed; they must have worked very hard and continuously.

I picked out an outfit called "Oliver", T-shirt, shorts and working boots over thigh-highs (not my optimal choice otherwise, but there was always something about the others that I liked _less_ , so I could suffer knee-highs) and a messenger bag. It would do to begin with. With all the details of this game, there was sure to be stuff that I liked once I got the money together. Then I quickly entered the username "Frei"; I'd gotten attached to it during ALO and I couldn't think of anything better, so I might as well run with it.

Once I was done, I pressed "Finish" at the bottom, and the avatar did a twirl before a bright white light enveloped the room. A warm, tingling feeling enveloped my body, and once the light had waned the screen had changed into a true mirror, and I was staring into the eyes of the avatar I had created. No, as of now, this was me. I was staring into _my_ eyes. I stretched, and took a few steps. Then I waved my tail and flicked my ears. They obeyed me perfectly, and I grinned wide. Their movement was smoother than I remembered them being even in ALO, and I was sure that once I'd gotten used to it I could perform even more fluid movements. I flexed my fingers in front of my face. In fact, all movements seemed to be able to handle more subtle nuances, and the facial expressions were remarkable too, I discovered while making some faces at my mirror image. If nothing else, I'd sure as hell be able to enjoy the technical side of this game.

The red curtain pulled aside with a rustling sound and I turned and walked towards the door. ...Had the door been that big before? I reached for the handle, and when I pressed it down and the door opened I was momentarily blinded by sunlight.

The door no longer led to the office I'd been in; instead I stood on the steps to a five-story palace, facing a wide street lined with bluebell-shaped, bronze lampposts. Avatars were milling about, and everywhere was ears and tails and laughter and occasionally a carriage would rattle past over the cobblestones, pulled by horses. For a moment I was reminded of a Cait Sith territory village near the Sylph territory, but once I looked closer this was nothing like it. Whereas the ALO village had had a slightly medieval look to it this city looked like the capital of some small, modern European kingdom, or at least like the image I had of small, modern European kingdoms. Across the street was a market place with rows of colourful stands and people calling out their wares to the passer-bys, and delicious smells wafted over to where I stood frozen and made my mouth water. I started taking a step towards the smells, but was interrupted by a voice clearly addressing me, as there was no one else on this side of the road at the moment.

"Hello there, and welcome to Ner Gaat!" A character with the name "Louis" in NPC green approached me and made a small bow, flicking the tail of his coat to the side with a hand-flourish. "Please ask me anything you want to know."

A screen appeared in front of me with some questions to select from. The first one was "Where am I?" and I pressed it.

"Like I mentioned, this country is called Ner Gaat," Louis started and then made a gesture towards the market square on the other side. "You're standing in Ronde Square, the central square in the capital city Kheur. The building you just left is the Royal Palace, where the administration of Nekomimi Online takes place. It's usually closed to the public, but occasionally it is opened for formal dances or similar events. The population of Kheur, not counting NPC's, is about 1,300 players, and for the entirety of Ner Gaat it's currently," there was a small, mechanical break as the number of players were counted, "3,586 players. The currency of Ner Gaat is Tar. If you open the menu by making a pinching movement with your left hand you will see you have been given a starting budget. Why don't you try it now and see how much you have received?" Louis said with a smile. I lifted my hand in a movement I was already familiar with from countless other games, and the menu appeared, showing a small image of my avatar with equipment information, a list of buttons (inventory, map, friend list, inbox, options and log out), under which was displayed "Balance: 150 Tar". It was difficult to tell if this was generous or not; I wouldn't find out until I could see what kind of prices this world had. I closed the menu again; I could look at options later. The NPC beamed at me.

"Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

The list of questions appeared once again, but I figured most things were the same as in other games and ignored those questions and went straight for "Are there any monsters in Ner Gaat?"

Louis nodded, but smiled reassuringly. "There are, but they never come inside the cities, and there are safe roads you can use if you don't want to fight. If you do want to help remove the monsters to protect our citizens though, you will be rewarded for your bravery! To fight, you first have to get yourself a weapon. Starting weapons can be found at the market over there and are cheap. They aren't quite as efficient as more expensive weapons, of course, so I recommend that you do not stray too far from the roads until you've gained some experience. If you lose all your Health Points in a fight you will lose whatever you have collected during that journey and be transported back to the town you were in last. Whenever you go through town gates your earnings will be secured, and if you then go and report to a Town Hall you will be given cash rewards for the monsters you've slayed, so make sure you pick up something from the monster to prove that you've beaten it! Incidentally, you can also request player duels, these will give you the opportunity to spar with other players. If your health reaches zero during a duel it will be the end, and you'll have to wait to recover a bit before you can leave the town. Recovery takes less time if you sleep it off in a bed. If you log out for over an hour while in a bed you will return to a full HP bar."

"Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

This time I pressed "No, thank you, I think I got it," and Louis made a kind of half-salute and bowed again, deeper this time. "One last thing," he said before leaving. "The person that invited you has been automatically added to your friend list; once you've explored a little I suggest that you send them a message and thank them! I hope you enjoy your time in Ner Gaat!"

And with that, this game could finally begin.


	3. YOU JOINED A PARTY!

The first thing I did was to check my friend list, where a name I didn't recognise was indeed listed. My classmate had chosen the username "Litchi", and next to the name was a small, square picture of her avatar's face. She had chosen a pink bob haircut, and her ears were floppy and hung down to the sides of her face. Along with the really bright smile on her face it gave a nice impression; much more memorable than the expressions she used in real life. Well, it wasn't uncommon to switch personalities in-game, either because you didn't dare act a certain way in real life or because you just wanted to role-play, so it didn't surprise me much. I supposed that I did act differently myself, but I didn't actively go out of my way to create a different persona; it was just a result of being with different people in different situations.

I _would_ send her a message later — I had to at least thank her for the invitation, after all — but first I wanted to go to that market on the other side. In case I got caught up meeting with her I wanted to at least get myself some basic things for my empty inventory and scout out the place a bit.

I crossed the road to the market. The stands were colourful and had a lot of things that I couldn't understand in the least, a lot of little items that I'm sure had some kind of function that I didn't know about. Some seemed very popular — just as I walked past two users challenged each other to a duel over the last remaining--- whatever it was, some kind of highly desirable item, apparently. It was an orb-shaped object shifting in red and violet and probably provided the user with some kind of attribute boost. It looked like the kind of thing that was expensive, possibly rare.

I did as many others had done and stopped to watch. It would be good to get some idea of the combat system,  even though I obviously couldn't figure out everything just by looking at one match if there were additional controls that were only visible to the users. One of the duellists was a slender, tall woman with small ears and a thin tail in the same blonde colour as her long, straight hair. A classic look, but to her credit she had kept her chest at a rather normal volume (a sign that she was possibly a woman in real life too). The other was a short one with large ears and a bushy tail and purple hair that reached to her shoulders, and with the pink dress added to that the only word to come to mind was "loli". They were yapping something about various stats and why the other didn't deserve it as much as the other, and I just had to smile because it was a literal _cat fight_.

The loli conjured up a sword that looked normal in everything except colour (a shade of pink that hurt your eyes). The blonde, on the other hand, brought out two over-sized balls of yarn. The loli grinned, seeming to think she had an obvious advantage, because what could yarn possibly do against a sword? The confidence on the blonde's face and her relaxed stance made me a bit pensive though. Maybe she had an overwhelming advantage in level?

After just a moment the reason was clear though; even without an advantage in level the blonde obviously had much more experience in battle, her movements were smooth without any of the redundant gestures and flailing of the loli. She manipulated the threads as if by some kind of telepathy, and she got one of the strands to completely tangle up the sword and keep it away from her as she used the other to coil the strand around the loli's neck. The loli wouldn't feel any pain or sense of suffocation, but it would be slightly uncomfortable and her HP would definitely be doing down at a rapid pace. Sure enough, soon a message appeared announcing the blonde, username Vichi, victor against Down. The weapons disappeared and Down slumped to the ground. Without further ado Vichi turned to the NPC merchant, bought the item and left. Another player — blue-haired but otherwise very similar to Down — knelt down next to her with a healing potion.

I left as the crowd dispersed. So they did have traditional weapons like swords — probably things like clubs and hammers and similar then, too — but also things like balls of yarn and who knew what else. While it would be interesting to see what other things there were, I'd probably stick with something I already knew. Although I'd been a beast tamer in ALO and that was what I knew best, I'd managed to acquire some skill in dagger wielding too, and it was hard to imagine that they wouldn't have double daggers if they had swords. (I just prayed they came in a more down-to-Earth colour.)

While searching for a stand selling starting weaponry — there had been a couple with really fancy stuff, but I probably didn't have the money or the level to wield them — I stumbled upon a stand selling baked goods. All kinds of sweet breads and buns in all kinds of shapes lay sprawled on a white linen cloth, and the warm smell got my mouth watering and my stomach rumbling. In particular one that looked like a cinnamon bun with lavender flowers on appealed to me, and I asked the NPC what it would cost. It ended up costing me 10 Tar. It seemed like the starting sum hadn't been _that_ generous in the end, but on the other hand this was most likely a luxury good and you could probably find more affordable meals in other places. I kept walking as I sank my teeth into the bun. It was soft and fluffy and sweet and warm and just a little bit spicy and the best thing I'd eaten in a virtual world for a very long time. I could probably stay in this world only to eat even if all else failed; if the first thing I happened upon tasted this good there had to be loads more.

I found the main weapons' stand as I was licking the last sugar off my fingers. It was larger than most of the stands around the place, and had a _lot_ of weapons at base level. I went around checking the stats and prices of this and that, and in the end I stood comparing a set of two daggers with a set of bow and arrows and a standard sword. Bows were always a good choice for beginners since you didn't have to get up close to fight, and the sword had almost double the attack stat of the daggers, but the latter had the advantage of having the one-handed option, which mean you could more easily use items and spells in battle if you needed to. Finally it wasn't that much of a choice; I had virtually no experience with archery, the sword felt strange in my hands and the daggers were also a bit cheaper. I struck the deal and paid.

I unthinkingly tried to equip them, just to try a couple of swings with them, but a message popped up telling me that you couldn't equip weapons in towns unless you were in a duel. It should have been obvious, but since I hadn't been thinking of actually using them on anything it slipped my mind.

I closed down the inventory and opened up the friend list again, clicking on Litchi's name to send her a message.

**I got in, thank you for your invitation!**

I dismissed the menu and started walking, but I had only taken a couple of steps before I got a "New Message" alert. That was really fast. I pressed it and read her message.

**Congratulations! If you don't have anything other to do, how about I introduce you to a couple of my friends? We'll treat you to a welcome party!**

I hesitated for a moment, but then again, I didn't have anything else to do and I could always ask them for tips and tricks.

 **Sure** , I typed. **Where should I go?**

This time I stood still, there was no point in moving anywhere since I might end up going further away from her than closer. The answer was quick this time too.

**I sent a location marker to your map, if you click it a thread will appear that you can follow! See you soon! ^o^**

I opened the map. The city of Kheur really was huge, much bigger than most towns in private games. I was close to the center, and a small blinking red light had appeared at the north-western corner. There weren't any symbols for public spaces, so it was probably a residential area. Litchi would have had to work quite hard to collect enough money to get even a flat at the edge of the capital city, if NO was any similar to other games when it came to property prices. As I tapped the dot the map closed and in front of me a thread materialised, winding its way forward along the streets. As I walked I made note of a couple of shops and inns that I might visit later. It had a really nice atmosphere, Kheur. It was very clean-looking and looked very nice, and there were parks and little streams in between the blocks.

After a while there were no shops anymore, and there were less people out on the streets. I'd gotten to the residential areas, and now there was more space between the houses and often at least a strip of garden in front, sometimes bigger gardens with lush, exotic-looking flowers. I didn't know that much about botany, so I couldn't tell if these were flowers that really existed or if they were made up for this world. Some looked sort of strange, but I had come across stranger flowers that really did exist. They smelled interesting too, but sometimes the more pungent smells mixed with other smells with plants that weren't supposed to stand close to each other, and created an unpleasant effect. This was probably the fault of stubborn users planting their flowers in bad places, though, rather than the fault of the people that programmed the smells.

Eventually I reached a house where the thread passed through the door. It was a three-story building, probably one apartment per floor. The garden was of the small variety, with a two simple bushes that emitted a faint, vanilla-like scent. I walked up to the door, and hesitantly knocked. It should be here, but could I get into a private house that easily in a game this concerned with the safety of the players..?

I needn't have worried, though. The door opened from within, and the girl from my friend list smiled at me. She had a white blouse with a pink collar in a slightly more subdued tone from her hair and ears, and a medium-width tail stuck out from underneath a brown lace skirt, black tights going down into black Mary-Janes.

"You made it over here quick, Frei!" Litchi exclaimed. She'd chosen a brighter voice here than in real life.

"Thanks to the thread; that's a really useful thing," I said. "It should be a feature in more games."

She shook her head. "This game focuses much more on social interaction than other games, so easy access is much more important here than in other games where you're supposed to really work for stuff. But come in, everyone's waiting to see who the new boy is!"

"How many are we talking about, exactly?" I asked as I followed her up the stairs to the third floor. Litchi chuckled.

"Not that many, so don't worry. There's the owner of this apartment, of course; her username is Hera. She likes to play sophisticated, but she's actually a real goofball. Then there's Rosie, she's real sweet, it's difficult not to like her. Vichi actually _is_ sophisticated, and she plays along with Hera. They can use really big words when they're talking classic literature, but just ignore them when they do. The last one," she turned and flashed me a grin, "Is one of the few male players around, so I figured you'd both like to at least meet once. He's also interested in doing some of the more difficult quests around, but hasn't been able to gather together enough of a party. He's got the highest level of all of us, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind teaming up with you if you want to, and help you level up more quickly than you can on your own."

I had to admit that that sounded good; it could be difficult to find a party to join even in normal games, since a lot of people had contacts and friends already, or joined together, so it could save me some socialising. And if we ended up not being to stand each other there was nothing keeping us from going our separate ways either.

"He's here!" Litchi called as she pushed open the door to the third floor apartment, and a lot of popping noises went off, and we were covered in confetti.

"Welcome to Nekomimi Online!" a chorus of voices greeted me, along with smiling faces.

One thing that is brilliant with VR games is that usernames are still displayed over a character unless you specifically choose to hide it, so it was easier to learn who people were, since the names were always there to remind you who was who.

"Congratulations on your admittance, Frei," Hera said with a gentle smile. "I hope you'll enjoy it here."

Hera had on a full- length dress reminiscent of Europe during the early 20th century, in a calm and dark brown. Her chestnut hair was braided into a bun around her head, with two locks hanging freely, framing her gentle face. She extended a glove-clad hand in the direction of her friends and introduced them to me even though their names were hanging there over their heads.

"This is Vichi," she said, pointing to the woman I'd previously seen winning the duel in Ronde Square. She bowed slightly with a wry smile.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"I saw your duel in the Square," I admitted, "Congratulations on your victory."

Her ears perked up in pride. "Thank you very much, but it wasn't that much of a victory. I'm looking forward to seeing you get better, maybe we can have a proper duel sometime."

I smiled at that. "That sounds great!"

"You'd better gather up a lot of experience first," Litchi warned me, "Her level is actually really high, even though she doesn't go out hunting a lot. Hera's level is too, by the way."

"Oh, but mine comes from cat breeding, not from fighting," Hera said humbly, "So I'm rather useless in a fight."

"But she's one of the best cat breeders," Rosie piped in, "So if you ever want to pick that up, you should definitely talk to her."

Rosie was interesting in that she was one of the few to have a more — curvy — body type for her avatar, but it still looked really good on her. She had long, white and very fluffy hair that fell around her shoulders, with a rose clip by her left ear. She had a frilly, pink sleeveless t-shirt that was so long it almost covered the entire pleated white skirt, under which a thick fluffy tail emerged. She looked very soft, like the kind of person you could hug and confide in without worrying about anything. I immediately decided I liked her.

Finally the other male player came up to me, stretching out his hand.

"Yo, nice to finally get another Y-chromosome in this place!"

"Rover" had gone with a similarly feral breed like mine, and had chosen a black military-style school uniform to wear. His hair was black, shifting in blue, and it was unruly and sort of flying around a bit, as if it was too light for gravity to get a proper hold of. He had a slim tail in the same colour. I shook his hand.

"Isn't Rover more of a dog name?" I asked.

Rover just grinned wider. "I chose it to annoy the girl I joined with. I basically joined with her because she was scared to try a VR on her own, but then I stayed for the shadow magic. It's really cool and has a better system than in other games, so I can live with the sugar-sweetness of the surroundings." He looked me over, snorting at the thigh-highs. "Fashion victim of the base outfits, huh?"

"It looks pretty nice, I think," Rosie teased.

I shifted my weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "Well I don't intend to keep them long; just need to gather enough Tar to get myself something I like."

"I can help you there," Rover made thumbs-up. "I heard you're interested in monster-fighting anyway, so how 'bout we guys stick together and form a party, huh? I'm even prepared to give you all the money spoils until we get you a decent outfit! You can't refuse that offer!"

I really couldn't, but: "How about items?"

"Ouch," he exclaimed, "You got me there. Well, we'll split basic items evenly... We won't be getting any rare items to begin with anyway, so how about we negotiate that when you've gained a couple of levels?"

I nodded. "Sounds fair."

"Great!" Rover rubbed his hands together and then made the motion to bring up his menu. He quickly tapped a couple of times seemingly in the air, and with a ping a notification appeared in front of me.

「ROVER HAS SENT YOU A FRIEND REQUEST. ACCEPT?」

I confirmed, and after that another message appeared.

「ROVER HAS INVITED YOU TO JOIN HIS PARTY. ACCEPT?」

I accepted this too, and Rover's stats appeared in the corner of my field of vision. He was at level 46. It would be quite some time before we could fight at the same level. A bit disappointing, but there wasn't anything I could do about it other than work hard.

"Well," Hera brought attention to herself. "Now that the introductions are over, how about we get to the main event? Rosie and I have prepared a little feast."

"It's not that amazing since it was kind of short-notice, but it should keep you from getting too hungry today at least," Rosie nodded and sort of half-danced her way over into another room. I followed as the rest of them did, and was invited to sit down between Rosie and Rover as we ate. You could tell that the food had been rushed, but it was by no means bad, and definitely better than anything I had ever cooked in any game. Soon I was lulled into the false sense of fullness imposed by the game, and I leaned back to listen to the others talk for a while. Most of it went over my head, the only thing I definitely understood was Litchi and Vichi discussing a real-world TV drama, but I didn't follow it so I couldn't join in.

After a moment I sat up properly and turned to Hera.

"By the way, you mentioned leveling up through--- cat breeding, was it? How does that work?"

Hera nodded. "Right. Here in Nekomimi Online you can level up in various ways. By winning over monsters, of course, or by duels, smithing, designing, completing quests... Pretty much anything really. That way you can acquire a really high level without ever fighting a monster. It's how most high-level players get their levels, really. Based on your level you get various perks, and also a certain allowance that allows you to have enough money to get by without having to earn that much money yourself as long as you actively try to level in some way. If you stay too long on a certain level without doing anything at all you'll stop receiving it."

I nodded. "To keep people from making a lot of mule accounts and abusing the system?"

"Exactly. So the way I do it is by breeding cats. You can have cats as companions in this game as soon as you have rented or bought an apartment of your own. You can adopt one cat for free from the shelter. You can also buy more cats from the shelter, but most prefer to breed their cats to try and get some kind of desirable trait or another. The inheritable gene system is really advanced here, it's impressive really. Not as complicated as in real life, obviously, but still very advanced. The higher star rank you cats have, the more people are willing to pay for a litter."

"Hera is really amazing, she's at four stars now! She's one of only eleven to have four stars!" Vichi interjected.

"There's a rumour that if you manage to get a five-star cat it will be able to follow you around like a familiar, but no one has gotten that far yet," Litchi added. "Hera and the other four-stars are working really hard to get there though, and if they manage to get five-star litters they'll probably be able to afford living in castles!"

"That's... wow," was all I managed to utter. "How long did that even take, getting to four stars?"

"Oh, I was really lucky," Hera smiled, embarrassed. "The first cat I got was already a two-half-star, so I got a head start. And it turned out she had really good bases, so I managed to get three-star litters very soon. Without that I'd still be at two stars now."

"Come on, Hera, let's show him," Rosie said, pulling me up by my arm and leading me off into an adjacent room.  As soon as the door opened at least twenty cats of all ages peered up at me, the youngest kittens toppling over in their excitement. I crouched down and picked up one that had started biting my shoe. It was a three-half-star, and a status screen popped up, showing a family tree and a brief description. It was unnamed so that the new owner could name it. It twisted and hissed in my grip, so I let it down carefully.

"They are really life-like," I said, impressed.

"I've met the person in charge of the programming," Rosie said, "She's a genius."

"'Met' in what sense?" Rover said in a theatrically loud whisper and Rosie swatted him on the arm.

"Behave," she said sternly, but the effect was reduced by her sly smile. The others laughed.

I went around looking at all the cats. Most were three-halfs, but there was a complete litter with four-stars that were undeniably very cute, with sandy fur and large, green eyes. There was one odd cat out, with mixed hair that was partly the same colour as Hera's hair, and partly an odd green colour. I clicked the link, and instead of a family tree there were only two names listed, "Hera" as mother, and "Evergreen" as father. It's name was Aiko.

"What is this?" I asked Hera, holding the cat up. It purred softly against my chest.

"Aiko!" Hera called out, turning red and losing her composure. "How did she get here, oh, oh my---!" She took the cat from my arms and rushed out.

"What was that about?" I asked the others, confused, but Litchi and Vichi only giggled, faces red, and Rover had doubled over trying not to laugh too hard. Only Rosie remained calm enough to answer me.

"Well," she said, fighting a smirk off her face. "When two people like each other very much..."

It took a while before I understood what she was getting at.

"You--- You mean that---?"

"Right. Instead of, uhm, children, which are too hard to program, you get," she laughed at my expression, "kittens!"

**Author's Note:**

> 30/8/2014 ─ Read through entire work and corrected mistakes and made minor changes to the formatting. Preparing to continue the series after a very long hiatus. I apologise to the people who have read and liked the work; I didn't know that anyone was actually reading it before I forgot about AO3 for a while. Thank you for your support!


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